Could Wilfredo Benitez beat Tito Trinidad? I think so.

[Terry A]

Both were great fighters or this wouldn't be such a good debate....HOWEVER, I think that Hearns beats Tito 9 out of 10 times if they had fought, and Wilfredo was NOT stopped by the Hitman, so, my opinion is that Wilfredo outboxes Tito, say along the lines of a 108-104 score in a 12 rounder.

[Easy-E]

of course he COULD.
the question is WOULD he?
and the answer is no.

[Easy-E]

Both were great fighters or this wouldn't be such a good debate....HOWEVER, I think that Hearns beats Tito 9 out of 10 times if they had fought, and Wilfredo was NOT stopped by the Hitman, so, my opinion is that Wilfredo outboxes Tito, say along the lines of a 108-104 score in a 12 rounder.

that makes sense.

[SnoopySmurf]

A man with a quicker, sharper, scarier eraser in Thomas Hearns wasn't able to dispatch Benitez...and his abilities were on a different level in regard to Trinidad.

Trinidad would have to land his luckiest Sunday punch on Benitez to stop him. I don't see it happenin. If were posturing that Benitez is on his game then I think we see a big time box fest with Trinidad coming out the loser.

Excellent point. Benitez doesn't get enough props today, IMO. He's been largely ignored (but not forgotten).

[PRboxingfan]

I'd pick Benitez to win in a masterful display of boxing skill and defense.

As for this post:

ike quartey,whitaker and oscar were the other best welterwights when he was around, he didnt fight 1, fought 1 oooooooooold man and lost to one.....what makes him such a great ww then??????/his 15 defenses of a tiltle he didnt even win from the TRUE champion?(Whitaker)

we all know his win over oscar was the one that legitimized his reign at welter and that decision was bs

not hating on tito but he is severly overrated...for me his greates win is vargas (great win, vargas was a beast)and he still managed to damage that one in my eyes with those low blows....not saying vargas wouldve won...just that them low blows were vicious, with bad intentions...

In Tito's defense, Quartey did not want to fight him. He kept pricing himself out of the fight after the Lopez draw where he kissed the canvas twice. That's why he had such a long layoff before fighting Oscar who could give him more money because Oscar was a bigger draw than Tito. IMHO, Quartey was scared of being KO'd by Tito.

As for the low blows that Tito landed on Vargas, there were three: one in the 3rd, one in the 4th (point deducted), and one in the 7th (point deducted). Tito was clearly winning the 3rd and the punch was unintentional. As for the fourth round, a point can be made that he was knocked down earlier but Tito did not look like he was in trouble; the seventh round was at the beginning when Tito wasn't in trouble, either.

NOW, what people fail to comment on is Vargas' low blows. Vargas landed one in the 7th to save his hide when Tito was pounding him like a half-cow in a Rocky movie. Then, in the 10th, Tito hits Vargas with a monster left hook to the body and Vargas hits Tito low, intentionally, to catch his breath. Nady deducts a point from Vargas for that one.

As for Oscar, I believe he lost to both Whitaker and Quartey and was given two gift decisions before losing a close fight to Trinidad (which I had 114-114, a draw).

[titoi]

Benitez went toe-to-toe with prime Leonard and Hearns and beat such folk as Cervantes, Palomino and (an admittedly cooked and bloated) Duran.

What has Trinidad ever done that might make one think he could beat Benitez?

He certainly couldn't box with him. If he did manage to hit him, it's unlikely he could hurt him.

I don't see this as a particularly competitive fight. Benitez beats him in every way except raw punching power and perhaps endurance. But the punching power is certainly not exceptional compared to people Benitez faced, and Benitez was unbelievably shifty and tough to hit. And the endurance I'm not even so sure... Benitez fought a good number of 15 round wars with serious guys...

I just don't see what Trinidad would have for him that he hadn't already faced in better fighters...

[SnoopySmurf]

From what I read about Benitez, he trained about 10 days for SRL and about 2 weeks for Hearns. If this guy had his mind on the right path, who knows how far he could have gone. Probably would have still lost to both men.

Benitez probably had ADD and back then, no one really knew much about that. Probably why he was so easily distracted before his big fights.

And yes, I do agree that Benitez would easily outbox Trinidad. His life story was kinda sad. I think his last fight, he ended up stranded in Columbia after his promoter stole his money and passport. It took him a year to get back to Puerto Rico.

[Deeznuts]

ike quartey,whitaker and oscar were the other best welterwights when he was around, he didnt fight 1, fought 1 oooooooooold man and lost to one.....what makes him such a great ww then??????/his 15 defenses of a tiltle he didnt even win from the TRUE champion?(Whitaker)

we all know his win over oscar was the one that legitimized his reign at welter and that decision was bs

not hating on tito but he is severly overrated...for me his greates win is vargas (great win, vargas was a beast)and he still managed to damage that one in my eyes with those low blows....not saying vargas wouldve won...just that them low blows were vicious, with bad intentions...

Umm..........ok man obviously you hate Trinidad cuz your Mexican and he beat Delahoya (don't deny it). Anyway if you can't comprehend that Trinidad was not a great fighter than you are not a fan of boxing. By the way what makes RJ so great. He fought bums with the exception of a close fight he got with Bhop and the win over Toney. Then he met Tarver and was the victim of one of the most brutal KO's in boxing

[CletusVanDamme]

From what I read about Benitez, he trained about 10 days for SRL and about 2 weeks for Hearns. If this guy had his mind on the right path, who knows how far he could have gone. Probably would have still lost to both men.

Benitez probably had ADD and back then, no one really knew much about that. Probably why he was so easily distracted before his big fights.

And yes, I do agree that Benitez would easily outbox Trinidad. His life story was kinda sad. I think his last fight, he ended up stranded in Columbia after his promoter stole his money and passport. It took him a year to get back to Puerto Rico.

Benitez was mildly ******ed(not ADD) and had to turn down a One Million dollar endorsement deal because he couldn't learn English. He couldn't function on his on very well in any other aspect of his life outside the ring. I have heard that about being stuck in Colombia as well.

[Phantasm]

Benitez was mildly ******ed(not ADD) and had to turn down a One Million dollar endorsement deal because he couldn't learn English. He couldn't function on his on very well in any other aspect of his life outside the ring. I have heard that about being stuck in Colombia as well.

I thought he spoke english fine...wasnt he born and raised till 8 years old in NY? And I've never head he was ******ed; he has dementia now, yes. But I've seen interviews with him and there was nothing ******ed about him. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, some of the interviews I saw with him were in English. I have to double check some of my fight dvds to confirm.